Agricultural Sustainability in Punjab: Issues and Challenges

There is an urgent need to diversify agriculture in Punjab, emphasising integrated farm principles, implementation of sustainable practices, organic farming, green farming and environmentally friendly techniques. It entailed using a holistic approach using ecofarming and agro-ecological principles based on local agro-climatic conditions. There must be changes in cropping patterns to include planting vegetables, fruits, herbs, mushrooms, fibre crops, oilseeds and fodder crops. Others are medicinal and spice crops. These will provide rural employment through village-based agro-industries. Besides, there has to be adequate harvesting, postharvest handling, processing, storage, quality control and assured marketing. To protect the soil erosion and conserve water which measures need to be implemented. Others include planting crops that use less water and better irrigation techniques such as rainwater harvesting, micro-irrigation techniques and drip irrigation. There is also an urgent need for a change in government policies to overcome environmental degradation in Punjab. These include removing subsidies for fertilizers and electricity, the reform of commodity prices, and improving agricultural marketing and distribution.